In a trading update yesterday, Singapore Airlines (SIA) said it expected to post a "material operating loss for the first quarter" of its fiscal 2021 year because of a slower than expected easing of international travel restrictions. "Our current view is the recovery trajectory will be slower than initially projected and will have a material impact on our revenue generation capability in fiscal year 2020-2021," SIA said.Read More » The company will issue more details about its first quarter – the three months to June 30, 2020 – in a business update on July 29.
The airline group's monthly traffic report showed the combined SIA, SilkAir and Scoot operating businesses flew 17,700 passengers in June, up 84% from 9,600 in May. The combined passenger load factor was 12.2% for the month, compared with 8.6% in May. SIA said air travel demand continued to be severely impacted in June as border controls and travel restrictions remained in place around the world.
In June, Japan Airlines (JAL) carried 642,607 domestic passengers, a 163% improvement from the 243,979 travellers flown in May. Passenger load factor rose to 41.6% for the 30 days, from 22.5% in the previous month. Despite the encouraging recovery as coronavirus-related travel restrictions were eased in Japan, JAL's June domestic passengers were down 79% from the same month a year earlier.
JAL said international passengers rose 16%, to 9,541 in June, from 8,245 in May. Load factor rose 9.7 percentage points, to 27.7% for the month, from 18% in May. Despite the month-on-month improvement, international passenger numbers were down 98.9% year-on-year for the reported period.
AirAsia Group CEO, Tony Fernandes, has denied reports the two shareholders of LCC AirAsia India – AirAsia Investments and Tata Sons – were looking to exit the joint venture. "I am not sure where these reports are coming from but both of us are very committed to the joint venture," Fernandes told CNBC Television yesterday. "India is an amazing country in terms of press reports. One minute we are selling to them, the next minute they are selling, all in 24 hours."
Garuda Indonesia CEO, Irfan Setiaputra, has told a government hearing in Indonesia the airline was in discussions to delay the delivery of four Airbus aircraft, the Reuters news agency reported on Tuesday. Setiaputra said the airline also was working on renegotiating aircraft leases in response to the coronavirus pandemic and admitted some lessors had grounded aircraft because of Garuda's "incapability to make payments".
Australia recorded 3,440 international visitor arrivals in May, a 99.5% reduction from 668,300 a year ago, Tourism Australia figures showed. The bulk of those visitor arrivals were from New Zealand (1,190), followed by the U. K. (340) and the U. S. (320). While the Australian international border has been closed to non-citizens and non-residents since March, exemptions apply for certain categories of people, including foreign nationals with critical skills, diplomats and individuals who need to return to Australia for humanitarian or compassionate reasons.
